


Ticklish

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M, Tickling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:07:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23286778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Jack finds out somehow that Pitch is *insanely* ticklish. When he finds out from MiM that it’s a way to possibly bring back Kozmotis Pitchiner, there’s only one thing to do: Anyone who comes across him must tickle the fuck out of him until he can’t move. And one by one, the shadows that possess Pitch disappear, and his memories return.+ if bondage of any sort is used (because let’s face it, when you’re being tickled, you just want to get away. And we can’t have that with Pitch just yet o3o)"In this version of the story, it’s not actually definitive that Pitch was someone else before being the Boogeyman. The moon thinks so, but this is firmly movieverse (with a bit of Rufftoon’s comics).But this story is actually more about blacksand being a very poorly kept secret and everyone being kind of uncomfortable about it. (Except Sandy.)
Relationships: Pitch Black/Sanderson Mansnoozie
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18
Collections: Blacksand Short Fics





	Ticklish

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 2/1/2016.

“He’s ticklish,” Jack says. “And I know that’s a weird thing to know, but I always know why people around me are laughing and in our last skirmish, well, some of Pitch’s laughter wasn’t a part of his evil drama king act, but because something tickled him.”  
  
“Well…” says Tooth, “it’s not surprising that that’s something you could know. I’ll make sure it gets recorded along with everything else we know about Pitch—I mean, everything we learn is something we could possibly use.”  
  
“Should we give a shot at figuring out _how_ , while we’re here?” Bunny asks. “Who even gets close enough to Pitch to tickle him?”  
  
“Sandy does,” North points out. Sandy nods and raises his cup of eggnog in agreement. A stopwatch appears over his head, marking off times of only a few seconds before restarting, again and again.  
  
“Yeah, never for very long,” Bunny says. “And, anyway, tickling is…well, it’s kind of _friendly_ , isn’t it? Not the kind of thing that we’re going to need to think about when we’re facing off against him.”  
  
“Are you trying to tell me I’m here wasting everyone’s time?” Jack asks indignantly.  
  
“No! I’m just questioning how much we should dwell on this new info without any other context!”  
  
“Context? What kind of context do you need? I just thought—” Jack breaks off as the glow from the moon grows brighter on the floor, and the Guardian symbol opens to reveal the crystal the Man in the Moon uses to communicate with them.  
  
“Oh, good!” North steps forward. “This will no doubt be the kind of context we need.”  
  
It takes some time, but the message the eventually work out is this: _Laughter is the best medicine. With enough of it, Pitch might become more of what he once was. This could only be good._  
  
The crystal retreats into the floor before any of the Guardians have a chance to respond.  
  
“I just want to state, only for the record, that of the two statements that weren’t a cliché, neither was definitive,” Bunny says.  
  
“What…who was Pitch?” Jack asks. “I feel like this might have been something important to tell me, while I was also, you know, wondering who I was.”  
  
“But that’s just the thing! We don’t _know_ ,” Tooth says. “That’s why we keep trying to collect information about him. The Man in the Moon always acts like he knows, but he never tells us anything more specific. All we know is that Pitch was someone that he offered Guardianship to, before the Dark Ages—it was a disaster and Pitch refused—primarily because he said the Moon didn’t understand him.” She sighs. “Whenever I remember that that actually happened it just baffles me.”  
  
“We can talk while we look for Pitch, yes?” North says.  
  
“We’re really going to do this?” Bunny and Jack both ask, though in very different tones.  
  
“Yes!” North throws his arm around Jack’s shoulders. “Following what Manny said last time worked out very well!”  
  


* * *

  
  
“I don’t like this plan,” Jack says. The plan is for Sandy to ambush Pitch when he leaves his lair, and for the Guardians to offer support if necessary. “Sandy shouldn’t face Pitch alone, even if he volunteered.”  
  
“It will be fine,” North reassures him. “Is ambush, and Pitch cannot muster nightmares like before. And…well, we will see.”  
  
“See _what_?”  
  
No one answers, for at that moment, Pitch flows up out of his lair. His movements are unsettling, but once he settles down, he yawns, and looks like nothing so much as a guy who just wants his morning coffee. He’s definitely unaware of the Guardian presence, and Jack almost feels sorry for him. It doesn’t stop him from laughing at the squawk Pitch makes when ropes of dreamsand fly out from a nearby stand of trees to neatly bind him, followed by Sandy tackling him like a sentient cannonball.  
  
“What do you think you’re doing?” Pitch doesn’t manage to sound very threatening while Sandy’s sitting on his chest. “This is _not_ in the arr—are the other Guardians here?”  
  
Sandy nods, and Pitch looks utterly horrified. He looks even more horrified when Sandy wiggles his fingers at him and signs something to the effect of “Man in the Moon’s orders”.  
  
“What?” he yelps. Sandy’s grin is positively evil as he reaches for Pitch’s ribs, and soon enough, Pitch’s helpless laughter rings through the small clearing.  
  
“So…how do we know if it’s working?” Jack asks after a few minutes.  
  
“I assume Sandy will know,” Tooth says. She looks back over to the pair. “Sandy doesn’t seem to be having any trouble holding him down. But maybe it’s how he tied him. He put more detail into the rope than I expected.”  
  
They remain silent for a little while longer. Sandy adds dreamsand tendrils to augment his hands, and these work on wherever Sandy can’t reach with his own two hands—in particular, Pitch’s feet. Pitch’s laughter gets more and more breathless, interspersed with pleas to stop, which Sandy dedicatedly ignores. He grips Pitch’s sides with his knees as Pitch writhes beneath him, tickling him remorselessly through all his attempts to throw him off.  
  
Bunny watches them through narrowed eyes before turning to Jack. “While we’re waiting…how much detail do your powers let you know about a situation?”  
  
He doesn’t seem to be trying to start a fight. “Oh, well, I have to be paying specific attention, but aside from the thing about laughter, I can usually get a good sense of what people think would be fun to do next.”  
  
Bunny nods. “You probably won’t be able to ignore that as you get more powerful. Just as an example, I get hopes from everyone around me, and I can’t block any of them. For example, Tooth and North hope that this plan of Manny’s will work.”  
  
“Is this really the time for a lesson on Guardian powers?” North asks. “We do not want to miss anything if this is working.”  
  
Bunny raises his eyebrows. “How long are we going to wait to make a determination?”  
  
The Guardians look towards Sandy and Pitch again. Sandy is having to get creative to get more laughter out of Pitch, and it’s hard to figure out exactly what’s going on behind all the dreamsand. Sometimes Pitch’s laughter sounds a bit strange, and he’s babbling even more nonsensical things now. “Okay, okay,” Jack hears him say. “Sandy! Sandy—if you’re going to—the Guardians!—I can’t—you’re terrible!—Pineapple!”  
  
The dreamsand tendrils dissolve along with the bindings, and Pitch immediately curls into a ball. “Don’t…forget…” he wheezes at Sandy, who gives him an affronted look.  
  
 _What on Earth…_ Jack doesn’t quite finish framing the question in his mind when Sandy rejoins the Guardians, his face a careful picture of regret. He doesn’t think it worked, he tells them. We should ask the Moon if we should try again.  
  
“Yes, that would be the…responsible thing to do…” Tooth says.  
  
But I’m very behind tonight on sending out dreams, Sandy goes on. Maybe we should debrief about it later.  
  
“Yes,” Bunny says at once, to everyone’s surprise. “You go do what you have to do. We’ll talk about it later, once you’re done.”  
  
Everyone else agrees one by one, and Sandy nods gratefully to them. Jack climbs into the sleigh—he wants to look at the records about Pitch Black at the Pole—but he can still hear Bunny mutter to Sandy as he prepares to leave. “You can’t fool me. _Please_ keep that in mind.”  
  
Jack frowns, confused again, and tries to think over the night, wondering if maybe using his powers on Sandy could help him figure out what was going on. After recalling everything that happened, he thinks he probably could. After realizing that, he decides not to focus on Sandy. At all.  
  
Sandy, who, even as the sleigh lifts away, doesn’t show any sign of leaving the general vicinity of where they all just were.  
  
“Pineapple,” he mutters. No wonder Sandy didn’t look at all surprised when Jack told the Guardians Pitch was ticklish.

**Author's Note:**

> Tags and Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> #keep your friends close#and your enemies much much closer
> 
> marypsue reblogged this from gretchensinister: #i'm cacKLING#I couldn't imagine a better way to handle this honestly#Sandy just because you are incapable of embarrassment doesn't mean that everyone else is


End file.
